Freedom of Speechhttp://www.pfaw.org/
Thu, 23 Jul 2015 13:04:36 -0400Thu, 23 Jul 2015 13:04:36 -0400Croatian LGBT Group Fined For Calling Journalist & Judith Reisman Ally A Homophobehttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/croatian-lgbt-group-fined-calling-journalist-judith-reisman-ally-homophobe
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_rww/Judith_Reisman.jpg?1437670824" />
<p><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">Many </span><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/globalizing-homophobia" style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;" title="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/globalizing-homophobia
Ctrl+Click or tap to follow the link">Religious Right leaders have thrown their support behind anti-gay laws</a><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;"> </span><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/international" style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">around the world</a><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;"> that not only criminalize gay sex but also limit free speech by making even the advocacy of LGBT equality illegal. Another tactic is to limit the free speech of equality advocates by restricting public criticism of their opponents.</span></p>
<p>In Croatia, a county court has <a href="http://www.zagreb-pride.net/backlash-on-the-freedom-of-speech-attack-on-zagreb-pride/">upheld</a> a ruling of the Zagreb Municipal Court that Zagreb Pride, an LGBT rights group, had violated the personal honor and dignity of a journalist by placing her on its annual list of candidates for &ldquo;homophobe of the year&rdquo; in 2013. The Court ruled that Zagreb Pride must pay more than 41,000 krona (a bit over $6,000) in fines and court fees. Zagreb Pride officials contend this case is an outgrowth of an organized campaign by conservative Catholic groups and their allies that led to a 2013 referendum banning marriage by same-sex couples.</p>
<p>The journalist, Karolina Vidović-Kri&scaron;to, had been placed on the list after producing&nbsp;a television segment in December 2012 which&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">used the research of&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/judith-reisman" style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">American anti-gay activist Judith Reisman</a><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">, who is affiliated with Liberty University, to&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">criticize sex-education curricula</span><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">. When Vidović-Kri&scaron;to was suspended by state television after the show, Reisman </span><a href="http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10357/1/Karolina-Vidovic-Kristo-distinguished-Croatian-journalist-on-HTV.html" style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">rallied to her defense</a><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">, and the journalist was reportedly among those who helped organize Reisman&rsquo;s 2013 trip to Croatia. Reisman <a href="http://www.jutarnji.hr/na-predavanju-judith-reisman-poluprazna-dvorana/1194544/">also visited in 2014</a>.</span></p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/new-report-religious-right-europe-and-its-us-backers">reported</a>&nbsp;by the Croatia-based <a href="http://www.cesi.hr/attach/_n/neo-conservative_threats_to_srhr_in_eu.pdf">Center for Education, Counseling and Research</a> (CESI), Reisman was <a href="http://barthsnotes.com/2013/01/30/judith-reisman-hits-croatia/">brought to Croatia</a> for a series of public appearances by Stjepo Bartulica, a member of the Catholic order Opus Dei and a Commissioner for Religious Communities in the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Reisman&rsquo;s record of anti-gay commentary is long and well-documented. For example, Reisman has:</p>
<ul>
<li style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
said that sex ed turns children into prostitutes and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/reisman-sex-ed-children-prostitutes-">&ldquo;little sexual deviants&rdquo;</a>;</li>
<li style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
said that sex education classes are <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/labarbera-homosexual-activists-doing-to-christians-what-nazis-used-used-to-do-to-jews">designed to brainwash children</a> into thinking they might be gay, transgender or &ldquo;all kinds of other things&rdquo; and &ldquo;these kids become fodder for adult predators, that&rsquo;s exactly what they become&rdquo;;</li>
<li style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/anti-gay-documentary-gays-grooming-kids-public-schools" style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">appeared</a><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;"> in an </span><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/michigan-gop-lawmaker-wants-school-officials-held-criminally-liable-teaching-students-about-" style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">anti-gay &ldquo;documentary&rdquo;</a><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;"> called </span><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/tank-tiananmen-square-another-trailer-janet-porters-anti-gay-documentary" style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">&ldquo;Light Wins,&rdquo;</a><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;"> in which she </span><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/anti-gay-documentary-gays-grooming-kids-public-schools" style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">argues</a><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;"> that parents should sue teachers and school administrators who allow students to read gay novels, which she says violates a federal law that makes it illegal to &ldquo;groom children for sex&rdquo;;</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
said Gay-Straight Alliance clubs and anti-bullying campaigns are <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2009/04/93528/">modeled on Hitler Youth</a> efforts to &ldquo;sever schoolchildren from their parents&rsquo; religious and sexual training&rdquo;;</li>
<li style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
called GLSEN &ldquo;<a href="http://wthrockmorton.com/2009/04/01/worldnetdaily-column-compares-glsen-to-hitlers-youth/" target="_blank">a modern version of the Hitler Youth</a>&rdquo; and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/barber-and-reisman-suggest-all-gay-people-are-pedophiles-or-advocate-pedophilia">said</a> that &ldquo;the whole point&rdquo; of GLSEN&rsquo;s anti-bullying efforts was to promote pedophilia;</li>
<li style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<a href="http://thecolu.mn/11835/special-report-the-rights-5-year-anti-lgbt-campaign-to-stop-safe-schools">claimed</a> that &ldquo;the aim of homosexual males and now increasingly females is not to have sex with other old guys and get married but to obtain sex with as many boys as possible&rdquo;;</li>
<li style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
joined her Liberty colleague Mat Staver in <a href="http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/exporters-of-hate-visit-jamaica">Jamaica</a> in December for a conference organized by those working to <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/mat-staver-headline-jamaica-conference-hosted-group-defending-anti-sodomy-laws">preserve laws criminalizing consensual gay sex</a>;</li>
<li style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<a href="http://barbwire.com/2014/04/01/condoms-never-fda-approved-sodomy/">wrote</a> that condoms are not meant for anal sex and called for a &ldquo;class action lawsuit by AIDS victims and their loved ones&rdquo; against the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Planned Parenthood and teachers and school systems that promoted condom use;</li>
<li style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
and&nbsp; <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/reisman-gay-boy-scouts-will-greedily-entrap-any-and-all-boys-who-seem-easy-prey">warned</a> that the Boy Scouts&rsquo; vote to end the ban on participation by gay youth would lead to increased pedophilia, and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/reisman-homosexuality-leads-communist-tyranny-puts-boy-scouts-grabs">agreed with right-wing radio host Rick Wiles</a> that the Boy Scouts change was about &ldquo;getting sexual predators into the Boy Scouts.&rdquo;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p>Reisman also believes that <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/liberty-u-professor-judith-reisman-wants-pornography-outlawed">pornography should be outlawed</a><u>.</u></p>
<p>Not surprisingly, Reisman&rsquo;s visit to Croatia was <a href="http://www.jutarnji.hr/gradanske-inicijative-i-udruge-za-otkazivanje-gostoprimstva-reisman-u-saboru/1081594/">controversial</a> and was criticized by some <a href="http://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/335518/Evo-zasto-su-strucnjaci-ogorceni-potezom-dekana-Milicica.html">scientists</a> as well as activists. Reisman faced a number of outspoken critics, whom she denounced as &ldquo;<a href="http://www.vecernji.hr/hrvatska/judith-reisman-nigdje-me-nisu-tako-izvrijedjali-kao-u-hrvatskoj-503565">thugs</a>.&rdquo; She spoke to <a href="http://www.jutarnji.hr/tomislav-karamarko---da--pozvali-smo-judith-reisman-u-sabor--u-cemu-je-problem--zar-ce-nama-sdp-odlucivati-kako-cemo-razmisljati--/1081635/">parliament</a><u>arians</u> and to college students, by whom she was <a href="http://www.jutarnji.hr/judith-reisman-na-fpz-u--kontroverzna-pseudoznanstvenica-svadala-se-sa-studentima--ali-i-dekanom---ne-mozete-tako-razgovarati-s-njima--/1081789/">not well received</a> ; when she responded to critical questions by charging that students had been indoctrinated by communists, the school&rsquo;s dean asked whether she realized how young these students were. He also challenged her credentials to speak about brain chemistry in regard to her promotion of an &ldquo;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/judith-reisman-pornography-homosexuality-and-gypsy-moth">erototoxin</a>&rdquo; theory that pornography leads to &ldquo;mating confusion.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Zagreb Pride officials, who say that challenging anti-gay rhetoric and actions are central to their reason for being, are calling the recent ruling an attack on free expression. <a href="file:///C:/Users/Peter/Dropbox/PFAW/strategy%20for%20taking%20the%20case%20to%20the%20European%20Court%20of%20Human%20Rights.">The Croatian Journalists Association</a> hosted a Zagreb Pride press conference last week.</p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;">"The Constitution guarantees us the freedom of speech, and Zagreb Pride's mission is to publicly reveal homophobia, so our basic duty is to react every time we see someone acting against homosexuals," Zagreb Pride representative Marko Jurcic told a news conference in the offices of the Croatian Journalists Association, calling on citizens to support the association and freedom of expression.</p>
<p>Another <a href="http://www.libela.org/vijesti/6382-zagreb-pride-ovom-se-presudom-ogranicava-pravo-na-slobodu-izrazavanja-ne-odustaj/?fb_action_ids=10153116122913655&fb_action_types=og.recommends">report from the press conference</a> quotes Jurcic calling for solidarity from citizens in support of free speech and human rights. Also speaking were Sandra Benčić&nbsp;from the Center for Peace Studies and&nbsp;Natasa Bijelic&nbsp;from CESI, who put the case in the larger context of the growing neo-conservative threats to sexual and reproductive rights in Europe.</p>
<p>Zagreb Pride leaders have vowed to challenge the decision to the Constitutional Court as a matter of <a href="https://www.gay.hr/forum/61461/karolina-vidovic-kristo-dobila-spor-protiv-zagreb-pridea-udar-na-slobodu-govora-u-hrvatskoj">freedom of expression</a>, and to develop a strategy for taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights.</p>
Peter MontgomeryAnti-GayCESIEquality For AllFreedom of SpeechInternationalJudith ReismanKarolina Vidović-KrištoSexuality EducationZagreb PrideFighting the RightFreedom of Speech59606Thu, 23 Jul 2015 13:04:36 -0400Freedom of SpeechLarry Pratt: 'The Second Amendment Was Designed For People Just Like The President' And 'Democrats Who Want To Take Our Rights'http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/larry-pratt-second-amendment-was-designed-people-just-president-and-democrats-who-want-take-
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/larry_pratt_a.jpg?1357153717" />
<p>Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, <a href="https://vimeo.com/123369779">spoke to Roger Fredinburg</a> on his far-right radio show in April about the attempt by&nbsp;Congress to restrict armor-piercing bullets. Pratt, responding to Fredinburg&rsquo;s theory that the left wants to take away everyone&rsquo;s rifles, said&nbsp;&ldquo;we figured that&rsquo;s kinda what they were up to.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The Second Amendment was designed for people just like the president and his administration,&rdquo; Pratt said. &ldquo;And yes, if the New York Times and the Rolling Stone, and whoever else wants to have a hissy fit, yes, our guns are in our hands for people like those in our government right now that think they wanna go tyrannical on us, we&rsquo;ve got something for &lsquo;em. That&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;s all about.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The Second Amendment,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;is not about hunting, it&rsquo;s not about target shooting, it&rsquo;s about Democrats who want to take our rights.&rdquo;</p>
<p><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208784588&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p>Fredinburg, building off of the tyrannical Democrats theory, argued&nbsp;that &ldquo;if you&rsquo;re a Christian or subscribe to traditional Judeo-Christian values today, you&rsquo;re considered a hate monger...if you&rsquo;re a pervert, a deviant, a derelict, you know someone who&rsquo;s captured by a decadent lifestyle, whatever, your rights are protected. But the good people, their rights are not being protected.&rdquo;&nbsp; Pratt, agreeing that the left hates guns and religion, replied, &ldquo;What a rhetorical sleight of hand, isn&rsquo;t it?&nbsp; They say they&rsquo;re for diversity, they say they&rsquo;re for freedom of speech, and &lsquo;you&rsquo;re free to say anything you&rsquo;d like as long as you agree with me.&rsquo;&nbsp;What hypocrites!&rdquo;</p>
<p><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208784537&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
Mikayla BeanBarack ObamaC4Freedom of Speechgun controlGun Owner&#039;s of AmericaLarry PrattSecond AmendmentFighting the Right56881Thu, 04 Jun 2015 13:47:21 -0400Freedom of SpeechACLJ: Blasphemy Laws For Me, But Not For Thee?http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/aclj-blasphemy-laws-me-not-thee
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_rww/Jay_Sekulow.jpg?1396035028" />
<p>Yesterday, Miranda <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/religious-right-freedom-and-liberty-group-aclj-backed-russian-gay-propaganda-and-blasphemy-b#sthash.vNsnk7ZC.dpuf">reported on the seemingly contradictory views of the American Center for Law and Justice&rsquo;s European and Slavic affiliates when it comes to blasphemy laws</a>. The ECLJ has been vocal in opposing blasphemy laws in Muslim-majority countries, but the SCLJ supported passage of a new anti-blasphemy law in Russia. The law provides for fines, &ldquo;correctional labor&rdquo; and up to three years behind bars for &ldquo;public actions expressing obvious disrespect toward society and committed to abuse the religious feelings of believers.&rdquo; SCLJ&rsquo;s co-chairman Vladimir Rehyakovsky expressed some reservations about the final form of the law, but said it was &ldquo;very important&rdquo; to have such a law in place.</p>
<p>So, where does the ACLJ stand on blasphemy laws?&nbsp; On one hand, it is proud of its <a href="http://aclj.org/united-nations/united-nations-adopts-the-eclj-s-recommendations-shari-a-law-restrictions-prohibited">opposition in international forums like the United Nations to blasphemy laws that are used by Islamist governments</a> to restrict religious expression. &nbsp;In 2011, the ACLJ said the UN&rsquo;s Human Rights Committee endorsed an ECLJ-backed position that &ldquo;no right exists to protect the reputation of an ideology, rather human rights belongs to individuals.&rdquo;</p>
<p>But more than a decade ago, in response to an &ldquo;Ask Jay&rdquo; question posted on the ACLJ&rsquo;s website, the group&rsquo;s chief counsel, Jay <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20020212152404/http:/www.aclj.org/askjay/010926_free_speech.asp">Sekulow, said it was &ldquo;an unfortunate situation&rdquo; that states no longer have laws against blasphemy</a>, something he blamed on &ldquo;the ACLU and those who trumpet the First Amendment as a license to really degrade people.&rdquo;&nbsp; Sekulow bemoaned the fact that &ldquo;religion lacks protection in the law.&rdquo;</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Joe from Rhode Island asks: In Black&rsquo;s classic law dictionary, blasphemy is illegal. When did it become legal to mock a person&rsquo;s&nbsp;faith in God?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Jay answers:</strong>&nbsp;Black&rsquo;s is the standard of legal definitions that law students are given around the country and Black&rsquo;s is still cited in Supreme Court decisions. Not only in English common law but also in most states in the USA, blasphemy was prohibited speech. Clearly, the ACLU and those who trumpet the First Amendment as a license to really degrade people have changed that and that&rsquo;s an unfortunate situation. But you&rsquo;re absolutely correct, Black&rsquo;s Law Dictionary is right. There are many definitions like that in Black&rsquo;s, but religion lacks protection in the law. Not only is religion seen as irrelevant, but religion is trivialized and even mocked. This behavior has become an accepted part of who we are as a people and in some cases the Supreme Court hasn&rsquo;t been particularly helpful in that context. The composition of the Supreme Court is obviously something we&rsquo;re always watching because we know that with the more conservative court obviously some of our values will be more protected. Things have changed drastically if you look at our history, and it&rsquo;s not even old history. Our country is still very young, but things are very different since our founding. We&rsquo;re continuing to hope here at the American Center for Law and Justice that history will continue to change in a way that protects the rights of religious people across America. This is what we&rsquo;re working toward. Selection of Supreme Court Justices is critical in the interpretation of these kinds of cases.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So it appears that the ACLJ is ready to champion free speech when it comes to opposing blasphemy laws in Muslim-majority countries, but supports restrictions on blasphemy in place where Christians are in the majority.&nbsp; Perhaps that double standard is not much of a surprise, given that the ACLJ, which portrays itself as a champion of religious liberty, helped <a href="http://aclj.org/ground-zero-mosque">lead opposition to the construction of a Muslim community center in New York</a> that critics inaccurately called the &ldquo;Ground Zero Mosque.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The ACLJ is a legal group founded by televangelist Pat Robertson and run by Jay Sekulow and his son Jordan in a manner that is <a href="http://archive.today/VwSw1">very</a> <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-09-05/Tenn-lawyers-family-firm-collect-millions-from-charities/50259614/1">lucrative</a> for the Sekulow family.</p>
Peter MontgomeryAmerican Center for Law and Justice freedom of religionFreedom of SpeechJay Sekulow Jordan Sekulowreligious intoleranceReligious Libertyreligious persecution rhetoricRussiaSlavic Centre for Law and JusticeVladimir RhyakovskyEuropean Centre for Law and JusticeFreedom of SpeechReligious Liberty46918Tue, 20 May 2014 14:19:20 -0400Freedom of SpeechBenham Brothers Reveal What Love And Liberty Mean To The Religious Righthttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/benham-brothers-reveal-what-love-and-liberty-mean-religious-right
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_rww/Benham_Bros.jpg?1399563236" />
<p>In the past week, David and Jason Benham have become the folk heroes <em>du jour</em> for the Religious Right, with everyone from Glenn Beck to Bobby Jindal declaring them martyrs to the homosexual movement&rsquo;s war on religious liberty and free speech.</p>
<p>What actually happened to the Benham brothers is that the Home and Garden TV network dropped plans to feature them in a reality show after Right Wing Watch <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/hgtv-picks-anti-gay-anti-choice-extremists-new-reality-tv-show">reported</a> on the anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-Islam activism of the brothers. David particularly seems to have followed closely in the footsteps of his right-wing activist father Flip. The Benham brothers have clearly decided to make the most of their 15 minutes of fame, going from one talk show to the next to decry the &ldquo;lies&rdquo; that were told about them &ndash; without ever identifying those &ldquo;lies&rdquo; &ndash; to denounce efforts to &ldquo;silence&rdquo; them, and to declare their &ldquo;love&rdquo; for gay people.</p>
<p>The Benhams&rsquo; media push not only demonstrates the Religious Right&rsquo;s persecution narrative, but also offers an opportunity to glean some insight into the worldview of Religious Right leaders and activists.</p>
<p><strong>Lesson 1: What &ldquo;love for homosexuals&rdquo; looks like as practiced by the Religious Right</strong></p>
<p>With anti-gay attitudes becoming less popular across America, Religious Right activists have increasingly adopted a strategy of declaring their love for gay people as individuals while simultaneously condemning homosexuality itself and the LGBT-rights movement.</p>
<p>That helps explain how the Benhams can say with a straight face that they love gay people and in the next breath describe the LGBT equality movement <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/david-benham-explains-his-love-gays-claiming-homosexual-agenda-led-satan#sthash.nvIjnLki.dpuf">as part of a spiritual war between God and Satan</a>.&nbsp; (Guess which side the gays are on.) It also explains why David and Jason keep making a big deal out of their claim that they have never attacked a gay person individually. They love gay people, they repeat, they just hate the &ldquo;agenda,&rdquo; which they say is to &ldquo;silence&rdquo; and &ldquo;suppress&rdquo; Christians&rsquo; message.</p>
<p>The real &ldquo;gay agenda,&rdquo; of course, is to have LGBT people be treated equally by the law and to have their human dignity recognized in our culture and our communities. You cannot say you love gay people while denigrating their efforts to be treated fairly under the law as evil and &ldquo;demonic.&rdquo; &nbsp;Well, you can say it, but it won&rsquo;t be very convincing.</p>
<p>The Benhams, of course, are hardly original in this approach. <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/david-benham-explains-his-love-gays-claiming-homosexual-agenda-led-satan">Even many of the most ferociously anti-gay activists claim to love gay people</a>. From their perspective, it is a loving thing to try to save gays from themselves and the demons supposedly controlling them.&nbsp; This week, the American Family Association&rsquo;s wildly anti-gay <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/david-benham-explain-his-love-gays-bryan-fischers-notorious-hate-radio-show">Bryan Fischer hosted the Benham brothers on his radio program</a>, where they agreed that none of them had an ounce of hatred in their hearts, but that, in Fischer&rsquo;s words, &ldquo;there really is a very active, aggressive, vitriolic, hate-filled homosexual lobby out there.&rdquo;&nbsp; The Benhams and their new fans should not be surprised that most LGBT people do not see it as a loving act to try to prevent them from being who they are, living openly without fear, or having the freedom to follow their dreams and find love.</p>
<p>And when it comes to the policy arena, to the U.S. Constitution and laws, the opinion of Religious Right activists about what is sinful does not trump the rights of their fellow citizens. The Benham brothers are outspoken opponents of legal equality for LGBT people. In 2012, David was a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121006010623/http:/decreeforamerica.com/media/spokespersons">spokesperson</a> for a group of Religious Right activists who responded to the Democratic convention and platform with a <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/democratic-party-platform-prompts-religious-right-decree-america">&ldquo;Decree for America,&rdquo;</a> which declared in part, &ldquo;we refute maneuvers to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples...We decree that marriage laws in America will not include unions other than those between a man and a woman.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Lesson 2:&nbsp; How criticizing one Christian = attacking all Christians</strong></p>
<p>The Religious Right insists that describing the LGBT equality movement &ndash; the &ldquo;homosexual agenda&rdquo; &ndash; as evil, demonic and un-American, has nothing to do with how they feel about gay people, and that it is terribly, horribly, awfully unfair to refer to them as haters or bigots.&nbsp; That&rsquo;s hard enough to take seriously given the intensely anti-gay rhetoric and record of many Religious Right leaders.&nbsp; But the absurdity is multiplied given that they routinely portray criticism of any particular conservative Christian activist as an attack on all Christians, Christianity itself, and religious freedom.</p>
<p>This has been a tactic of Religious Right leaders from the movement&rsquo;s earliest days. Suggesting that criticism of the Moral Majority&rsquo;s divisive rhetoric or the Christian Coalition&rsquo;s political tactics was somehow an attack on the faith and freedom of religious Americans was meant to muddy the issues and intimidate the movement&rsquo;s critics. In the case of the Benham brothers, conservative media and pundits have railed that the brothers were <a href="http://www.ecumenicalnews.com/article/benham-brothers-fired-from-hgtv-reality-show-for-christian-faith-24751">fired for their faith</a>, for being &ldquo;too Christian for cable.&rdquo;</p>
<p>How is it that the Benhams can denounce the gay rights movement as Satanic while insisting that they have no hostility toward individual gay people, but that Right Wing Watch can be portrayed as &ldquo;anti-Christian&rdquo; simply for documenting specific statements that right-wing political activists have made as part of their public advocacy?</p>
<p><strong>Lesson 3: The First Amendment through Religious Right eyes: just for the Right kind of Christians</strong></p>
<p>While Religious Right leaders are quick to equate criticism as an attack on their freedom of speech and religion, some of them are all too happy to limit the free speech or religious liberty of the people they disagree with.&nbsp;That includes the Benham brothers.</p>
<p>In the flurry of public appearances in the wake of the HGTV cancellation, the Benhams and their right-wing fans have portrayed themselves as committed to the principle that everyone in America should have a chance to express themselves.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/hosts-of-axed-hgtv-show-decry-complete-lies-about-religious-gay-views/">On the O&rsquo;Reilly Factor</a>, David Benham denounced the gay agenda for seeking &ldquo;to silence those that disagree with it, and it begins with Christians.&rdquo; Jason warned that &ldquo;when an idea seeks to silence any other idea that may disagree with that, then we have ourselves a problem on hand.&rdquo;</p>
<p>But <a href="http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2014/05/exclusive-proof-positive-of-david-jason-benhams-extreme-anti-lgbt-viewsin-their-own-words-flipthisdecision-hgtv-out.html">as blogger Jeremy Hooper recently pointed out</a>, back in November 2004, David, Jason, and Flip Benham were all part of a group of about 15 people who went to a Charlotte, North Carolina city council meeting to complain about the <a href="http://charlottepride.org/benhambros/">gay pride celebration</a> that had taken place in a city park six months earlier. They were among a group of people who had gone to the Pride event to, in Jason&rsquo;s words, &ldquo;tell them that Jesus loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way.&rdquo; But the Benhams and their friends were appalled at what they saw. &ldquo;This is filth, this is vile and should not be allowed in our City,&rdquo; said David. Jason urged city council members to reject future permits for Pride celebrations &ndash; and seemingly for any LGBT-themed event:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They have a right to apply for this permit, but you have a right and responsibility to deny it. I [implore] you not to be governed by the fear in which you feel. If you deny them this permit you will open a can of worms but you in your leadership position have to take that responsibility and you have to not allow the fear of making this homosexual community mad. You have to accept that responsibility and deny them every permit that they ask for.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the words of Charlotte Pride organizers, <a href="http://charlottepride.org/benhambros/">&ldquo;The Benham brothers once tried to silence us. They failed.&rdquo;</a></p>
<p>Some Benham fans, like the American Family Association&rsquo;s Bryan Fischer, say flat-out that the First Amendment&rsquo;s religious liberty protections were only meant for Christians and don&rsquo;t apply to Muslims, Mormons or other minority faiths. Back when many self-proclaimed &ldquo;religious liberty&rdquo; advocates were opposing efforts by Muslims in New York to build a community center &ndash; which critics gave the inaccurate and inflammatory name of &ldquo;Ground Zero Mosque&rdquo; &ndash; David Benham and his father Flip were among them. <a href="http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/domestic-extremism-terrorism/c/backgrounder-operation-save-america.html">According to the Anti-Defamation League</a>, David participated in protests against the Center, calling it a &ldquo;den of iniquity&rdquo; and labeling Muslims &ldquo;the enemy&rdquo; that was attacking America.</p>
<p>In these public debates, &ldquo;Christian&rdquo; as used by Religious Right leaders often doesn&rsquo;t really apply to all Christians, but only to a subset of Christians who share their right-wing politics. Other Christians don&rsquo;t count.&nbsp; The Family Research Council&rsquo;s Tony Perkins, who has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouRN_QfwYRg">bemoaned &ldquo;cultural elites&rdquo; who want to &ldquo;silence&rdquo; and &ldquo;bully&rdquo; people like the Benhams</a>, recently said that <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/tony-perkins-arbiter-christianity-says-pro-gay-christians-dont-have-same-religious-rights-co">pro-gay-equality Christians </a>don&rsquo;t deserve the same legal protections as he does because &ldquo;true religious freedom&rdquo; applies only to those with religious views that align with those of the political Right.&nbsp;</p>
Peter MontgomeryAmerican Family Association Anti-GayBryan FischerDavid BenhamEquality For AllFlip Benham Freedom of SpeechJason BenhamMarriage EqualityMarriage Equalityreligious discriminationReligious Freedomreligious persecution rhetoricTony Perkins Family Research CouncilFighting the RightFreedom of SpeechReligious Liberty46857Thu, 15 May 2014 10:36:42 -0400Freedom of Speech